For the Advanced Body Mechanics (ABM) project, we worked with a progressed version of Body Mechanics – Hence the additional keyword being Advanced. Although we are rotoscoping the majority of the project, what makes it advanced is to do with the switch between IK and FK control keyframing on the fly. It is as much as a headache as it sounds – a lot.
We begin by finding and using reference footage of a higher form of body mechanics, backflips, parkour, contortionism, anything that sounds painfully complex to do in real life, is equally painful to do in the digital 3D world. The reference I am using is a provided reference of a running person vaulting over a staircase-like object. It may not sound complex, but the complex part is where the actor is using a continuous momentum of the jumping movement to clear enough distance for the staircase, yet while his body is in full motion, his hands stick to the staircase like glue and swiftly lift off the object as a foot does with the floor when walking.
So I must block out the animation of the character using rotoscoping just as done in the previous project. Once I accomplish that, it’s about locating the advanced part of the animation and switching the hand controllers on and off between IK to FK and duplicating the set of arms multiple times to have different controllers for each duplication. However, the finishing to the cake lies in the graph editor and cleaning up the finished project to give an appearance of fluidity.
I’m aware that my animation isn’t as smooth as it could have been if I had more practice, but I find this style of working quite enjoyable and would love to use similar techniques. The idea of rotoscoping with reference images for that personal touch is fun but almost feels like cheating to me as it feels so easy for me. But then introducing these advanced mechanics showed to me that it’s more detailed than I had originally assumed and has its own flaws and tough work arounds that animating traditionally would provide.